so, i'm reading this thread and i think to myself "must get myself one of those number plates".

i look up vicroads website, and there's no online order. next best option is phone purchase...... 20 minutes later someone picks up.

"can i buy a plate etc?" "yes.. are you the registered owner of the vehicle?""no, it's for a bike rack""yes, but i need the vehicle registration""what vehicle?""the vehicle you will be attaching the rack to""but i could attach it to a range of vehicles""you can only attach it to one vehicle"FFS "ok you win.""are you the registered owner of the vehicle?""no""we can only do it through them"so i have to get my wife to complete it.

great.

check this out:

Do not overload the vehicle by carrying too many bicycles.

haha! yes, at 10kg each, 30kg of bikes is surely a major overloading problem for most cars.

jules21 wrote:so, i'm reading this thread and i think to myself "must get myself one of those number plates".

i look up vicroads website, and there's no online order. next best option is phone purchase...... 20 minutes later someone picks up.

"can i buy a plate etc?" "yes.. are you the registered owner of the vehicle?""no, it's for a bike rack""yes, but i need the vehicle registration""what vehicle?""the vehicle you will be attaching the rack to""but i could attach it to a range of vehicles""you can only attach it to one vehicle"FFS "ok you win.""are you the registered owner of the vehicle?""no""we can only do it through them"so i have to get my wife to complete it.

great.

check this out:

Do not overload the vehicle by carrying too many bicycles.

haha! yes, at 10kg each, 30kg of bikes is surely a major overloading problem for most cars.

it's not the car that you need to worry about but much rather the carrier itself , a lot of stress on the metal

so what you are cracking it because vicroads wouldn't give a plate to a person who isn't the registered owner of the vehicle?, talk about a storm in a tea cup

simple solution , take plate off car shove it onto the bike carrier when in use , when not in use put the plate back on the car

Last edited by biftek on Sat Sep 15, 2012 3:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

biftek wrote:it's not the car that you need to worry about but much rather the carrier itself , a lot of stress gett putting on the metal

it's usually the simplest answer that is the best one - they are just ignorant.

if the rack is made for 3 bikes, it should be strong enough for 3 bikes. they've clearly illustrated the car with its front wheels hoiked in the air as a result of being overbalanced by the massive weight of 30 kg worth of bikes.

biftek wrote:it's not the car that you need to worry about but much rather the carrier itself , a lot of stress gett putting on the metal

it's usually the simplest answer that is the best one - they are just ignorant.

if the rack is made for 3 bikes, it should be strong enough for 3 bikes. they've clearly illustrated the car with its front wheels hoiked in the air as a result of being overbalanced by the massive weight of 30 kg worth of bikes.

it should be yes , but you get what you buythe picture of the car looks ok to me( and remember it is just that , a cartoon image of a car) , just the bike carrier is slanted

biftek wrote:so what you are cracking it because vicroads wouldn't give a plate to a person who isn't the registered owner of the vehicle?

it's a "bike rack number plate" - it's for a bike rack, not a vehicle. the whole point is it can be used on different vehicles.

i understand that they want to tie it to a vehicle, as that's how their rego scheme works. my point is that you end up working for the rego scheme, rather than the rego scheme working for you. classic bureaucracy.

you're making a mountain out of a mole hill as i said "attach the rear number plate from your car to your bicycle rack when it is in use and then return it to your vehicle when you are not using the bicycle rack" 2-4 screws 5minutes is all it takes

biftek wrote:you're making a mountain out of a mole hill as i said "attach the rear number plate from your car to your bicycle rack when it is in use and then return it to your vehicle when you are not using the bicycle rack" 2-4 screws 5minutes is all it takes

I know how you feel, got pulled over the other week and got a friendly warning, I've had my rack for 2.5 years, so it was time to get a plate for it, the plate is now all bent so both bikes can fit on the rack without hitting the plate, but I'm now legal....................

......unless it's dark and then I need lightling for it.............

..... or happen to be driving with rack attached and no bike fitted to it

jules21 wrote:it's a "bike rack number plate" - it's for a bike rack, not a vehicle. the whole point is it can be used on different vehicles.

no it is a supplementary plate for your vehicle, not your rack. The whole point is that it duplicates your car plate so you don't have to move it every time you use/remove your bike rack. Doesn't seem anywhere near bureaucratic stupidity to me. Seems you are getting upset about the name of it, when taken literally, being innacurate.

bychosis (bahy-koh-sis): A mental disorder of delusions indicating impaired contact with a reality of no bicycles.

bychosis wrote:no it is a supplementary plate for your vehicle, not your rack. The whole point is that it duplicates your car plate so you don't have to move it every time you use/remove your bike rack. Doesn't seem anywhere near bureaucratic stupidity to me. Seems you are getting upset about the name of it, when taken literally, being innacurate.

And trailers are a vehicle, and travel on the road, and have a load, and do pavement damage etc (couple of points added to point out that not all things on the road do require rego). Bike racks are an attachment to ouour vehicle. Do you want to register your roof racks? They also do not travel on the road. Your vehicle should be operating within its registered weight allowance wen the bike rack is loaded onto the vehicle.

bychosis (bahy-koh-sis): A mental disorder of delusions indicating impaired contact with a reality of no bicycles.

jules21 wrote:not necessarily. less than 200kg tare no rego needed in Vic.

unless

A trailer must be registered if :

it is used for business purposes, or is specifically constructed to carry a boat or is carrying a boat and weighs more than 200kg unladen, or is wider than the towing vehicle, or is more than three metres in length, including the draw-bar and load.http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/Reg ... ration.htm

so back to the original post. That Thule shown on page 1 is the one I'd buy. If I was to ride down the Gold Coast (I live in QLD) and get my wife to pick me up from down there with the bike rack attached, she can get fined because there is no bike on it?

that is utter crapola. I'm going to make a cardboard cutout of a bike and stick it on the rack

jasonc wrote:so back to the original post. That Thule shown on page 1 is the one I'd buy. If I was to ride down the Gold Coast (I live in QLD) and get my wife to pick me up from down there with the bike rack attached, she can get fined because there is no bike on it?

that is utter crapola. I'm going to make a cardboard cutout of a bike and stick it on the rack

It's not about having a bike on it or not, it's about being a dangerous thing sticking out the back of a vehicle, you could stick some hivis stuff on it, and/or some padding to make it safe, then argue the point with the law.

I recently saw a bike rack, with a home made plate on the back (illegal), but it didn't match the plate on the car (really illegal). Would have been better to just remove the plate than put a false and wrong one on it.

bychosis (bahy-koh-sis): A mental disorder of delusions indicating impaired contact with a reality of no bicycles.

jasonc wrote:so back to the original post. That Thule shown on page 1 is the one I'd buy. If I was to ride down the Gold Coast (I live in QLD) and get my wife to pick me up from down there with the bike rack attached, she can get fined because there is no bike on it?

that is utter crapola. I'm going to make a cardboard cutout of a bike and stick it on the rack

This discussion got me motivated p talk to a police officer and a magistrate I know. The accessory number plate is needed for a bike carrier when it blocks the car's rear rego plate. You are more likely to get pulled over if you have a copy home made plate than if you have none. There are also far more fines than if you have none. I ended up buying the accessory number plate from PPQ. You select accessory plate (online), put in your rego number, pay for it online and get it delivered to your PO Box or home all for $67. Use PPQ.com, do not try to use the Qld government website as you'll just get frustrated.

jasonc wrote:so back to the original post. That Thule shown on page 1 is the one I'd buy. If I was to ride down the Gold Coast (I live in QLD) and get my wife to pick me up from down there with the bike rack attached, she can get fined because there is no bike on it?

that is utter crapola. I'm going to make a cardboard cutout of a bike and stick it on the rack

This discussion got me motivated p talk to a police officer and a magistrate I know. The accessory number plate is needed for a bike carrier when it blocks the car's rear rego plate. You are more likely to get pulled over if you have a copy home made plate than if you have none. There are also far more fines than if you have none. I ended up buying the accessory number plate from PPQ. You select accessory plate (online), put in your rego number, pay for it online and get it delivered to your PO Box or home all for $67. Use PPQ.com, do not try to use the Qld government website as you'll just get frustrated.

have no problems with the plate. the government want more revenue. I have a problem not being allowed to drive with an empty bikerack. If that's the case, why can you drive a car with a tow bar/ball still attached to your car without being fined?

jasonc wrote:have no problems with the plate. the government want more revenue. I have a problem not being allowed to drive with an empty bikerack. If that's the case, why can you drive a car with a tow bar/ball still attached to your car without being fined?

Jason the authorised licence plate has more to do with clear visibility for Road Safety Cameras to read the letters and numerals easily - which if we were to believe the relevant authorities, has nothing to do with raising revenue.

I do have an additional beef about the authorised plates - two beefs(?) actually. The authorised plates are fragile and have sharp edges. When rigidly mounted to a bicycle carrier they will eventually fracture and fall off. We've had one customer that I know of have a penalty removed because he had evidence of the remnants of the licence plate still bolted to the carrier. But it's another regular hassle to go through to order and pay for replacement plates each time. I use cable ties to eliminate the problem with the fragility of the plates and the added bonus is that because the plate is free to move it won't slice your thigh open if you brush past it.

On the tow bar protrusion it is in fact illegal to leave it in place when you don't have a trailer attached. It's just that the regulation is not policed - hence ignored.

Just like indicating when exiting a roundabout. Here in Victoria it's not policed, hence ignored. Indeed I would go so far as to say that when you do indicate, it often confuses other drivers around you. Drive in NZ though and everybody complies with the very same regulation - because in NZ the regulation is policed.

gcouyant wrote:Just like indicating when exiting a roundabout. Here in Victoria it's not policed, hence ignored. Indeed I would go so far as to say that when you do indicate, it often confuses other drivers around you.

That rule is not policed because it is an 'optional' rule - to be done "if practicable"

Victorian Road Rules wrote:118 Giving a left change of direction signal when leaving a roundabout(1) If practicable, a driver driving in a roundabout must give a left change of direction signal when leaving the roundabout

gcouyant wrote:Just like indicating when exiting a roundabout. Here in Victoria it's not policed, hence ignored. Indeed I would go so far as to say that when you do indicate, it often confuses other drivers around you.

That rule is not policed because it is an 'optional' rule - to be done "if practicable"

Victorian Road Rules wrote:118 Giving a left change of direction signal when leaving a roundabout(1) If practicable, a driver driving in a roundabout must give a left change of direction signal when leaving the roundabout

I grew up in Melbourne, and now living in Brissy I really appreciate the indicate on exit rule. it just makes sense. You always exit the roundabout on your left. So why the hell not indicate that intention?

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